


Speak My Language

by Braincoins



Series: Stars Aligned [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, Language (learning), pining!Shiro
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:27:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26344135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Braincoins/pseuds/Braincoins
Summary: Shiro's struggling to learn Altean. He wants to be able to read his Lion's screens. He’s always wanted to learn about alien races and cultures, and language is an important part of that.Specifically, he wants to learnAllura’slanguage.
Relationships: Allura/Shiro (Voltron)
Series: Stars Aligned [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1914286
Comments: 6
Kudos: 19





	Speak My Language

**Author's Note:**

> This was one of two originally-Zine Exclusive fics for volume 1 of the [Stars Aligned Shallura Zine](https://shallurazine.tumblr.com/).

“It’s easy,” she had said. “I’m sure you’ll be able to pick it up in no time.”

Shiro was proving her wrong. And, of all of them, he thought he’d be able to pick up Altean writing easiest, especially once Allura had explained to them all that it was a combination of pictograms and individual letters. _Like kanji and kana_ , he’d thought.

And he could figure out the individual symbols and letters well enough. But the _combinations_ were maddening. Stringing even a single word together had about a dozen different rules because the pictograms had restrictions on which ones could be combined in which ways. Spacing was important, and some characters could literally be combined together into a single pictogram: a sort of Voltron of language.

Pidge was picking it up the easiest: as the hacker of the group, she’d approached it as a programming language, and while she still messed up longer and more complex sentences, she could write a basic conversation down.

Keith and Lance had both given up, trusting their lions to continue telling them what to do. Hunk had figured out enough to read the Altean labels on the Castle’s computer systems, but then he’d mostly already had that through trial and error (and occasionally asking Coran).

But Shiro was struggling, and it bothered him. He wanted to be able to read his screens. It wasn’t that he didn’t communicate well with Black so much as he didn’t like not being able to access the information being given to him. Also, he’d always wanted to learn about alien races and cultures, and language was an important part of that.

Specifically, he wanted to learn _Allura’s_ language. He could hide behind his role as a Paladin of Voltron all he wanted, but he dreamed of writing something for her in Altean as a show of his …affection (and had nightmares of accidentally insulting her in the process). He wanted to learn this for her.

Part of him thought it was a convenient excuse, to put off confessing how he felt to her until he could do so reasonably in her own language. But he wanted that effort to be part of that conversation, to show that his feelings for her were more than a passing whim, that she meant this much to him. And, if he was being honest with himself, he hoped it would impress her enough that she wouldn’t immediately shoot him down when he finally got around to telling her.

He brought the tablet to her in defeat. “I’m just not getting it,” he sighed.

She smiled at him. “You don’t have to torture yourself like this, Shiro. The Black Lion will help you with what you need to do.”

“I know, but I want to learn. I want to get it right. I can’t even write my own name right now.”

“What can you write?” she asked, offering the tablet back to him.

“Not much,” he warned her.

“Show me,” she insisted.

He sighed and cleared the screen, bringing up the Altean keyboard. He tapped in a few symbols, started a new line, tapped in a few more, then one more line and again. He offered her the tablet back.

She accepted it with a smile. “Let’s see. ‘Voltron’, good. Oh, and ‘Castle of Lions’!”

“I just memorized those though.”

“And…” She looked at the last line and smiled at him. “And ‘Princess Allura’.”

He cleared his throat. “I memorized that, too.”

“Well, that’s not a bad way to start.”

“I wanted to make sure I could read the most important things.”

“’The most important things’ includes my name, does it?”

He felt his cheeks start to warm. “And I recognize the Castle’s ‘Alert’ warning when I see it, but I can’t remember it to write it.”

“Yes, well the red flashing symbols and blaring alarms probably help with that, don’t they?” she teased gently.

He nodded. “Yeah, they help a lot,” he admitted.

She chuckled and patted his arm. “I know it’s hard for you. But it means a lot to me that you wanted to learn in the first place, and that you’re working so diligently at it. What if I give you a list of useful words to memorize? Perhaps once you’ve memorized them, you’ll start to see the similarities in different pictograms and letters and how they’re used.”

He brightened and nodded. “That sounds like it might work. It couldn’t hurt anyway.” He laughed a little. “I don’t know how I could get much worse at this.”

She was tapping away on the tablet as they chatted. “Well, you could be Lance or Keith,” she pointed out. “Remember when Keith said the Royal pictogram was like the symbol for something called the Whyemmseeay and Lance started singing that ridiculous song?”

Shiro snickered. “Yeah, I’m sorry about that.” _But it was hilarious._

“There’s nothing to be sorry about. I’m not offended. And, honestly, associating our language symbols to familiar things from your culture could only help you learn. Though I’m not sure I want them dancing like that every time they see anything associated with the Altean Crown.”

“I think Lance figured out how to make his lion dance to it,” he put in.

She snorted. “Oh, dear. Hopefully he knows there’s a time and a place for that foolishness.”

“I’m sure he does,” Shiro reassured her. _Mostly sure. I’ll **make** sure he does._

“Here.” She offered the tablet back to him. “Work on these. I’ve included the English translations for you.”

“Thank you.” He smiled down at the tablet briefly, then looked back to her. “I guess our language is easier for you than the other way around.”

“I’m used to having to pick up languages,” she pointed out to him. “I was raised to be a diplomatic leader; you were trained to be a martial one.” She shrugged. “Different skill sets. That’s why we’re a team; we each bring our own strengths and weaknesses. We shore each other up. Everyone doesn’t have to know how to do everything.” She smiled softly at him. “You aren’t alone.”

His smile widened. “Thank you, Princess. And thank you for this. I’ll start working on these right away.”

“I’m sure you will. Your determination and desire to learn are some of your own strengths, after all. Let me know how you’re getting on with it. I’m always glad to help you, Shiro.”

He thanked her again and let her get back to her duties. As he walked back to his room, he looked over the list she’d made for him. It started with his own name, along with the other paladins’ and Coran’s, the word for “lion” and the necessary colors, “alert,” etc. A long list of mostly piloting-related words followed (horizon, apogee, zenith, perigee, ecliptic, star, planet, moon, system), and then, at the bottom…

He stopped in the middle of the hallway and stared.

    * Handsome
    * Beautiful
    * Brave
    * Strong
    * Smart
    * Sweetheart



And an entire phrase: “You take my breath away.”

He blinked a few times, and then smiled. Perhaps Altean might come easier to him this time around. 


End file.
